National Game Design Month is about making and playing games. During the month of November I want You to create and play your own boardgame, RPG, flash computer game, choose-your-own-adventure book, wargame, cardgame or other distracting novelty. The rules are simple – create, write, play (at least once) and discuss a game during the month.

There are no restrictions on what kind of game you create; how “big”, “long” or “hard” it is; or how long you must spend creating it. If you want to bang out an RPG in 24-hours, go right ahead; if you want to spend 3 weeks putting together an electronic game, do it! Here are what constitute the “rules” of NaGa DeMon;

Create the game in November. It can be based on ideas, notes and other resources, but the putting together of the game should occur during the month.

Finish the game in November. Complete the game! A complete game should have everything required to play – no hand-waving (“Oh, I’ll make those cards later”) allowed! In the case of an RPG this means rules for character generation, resolving conflict, experience, and setting. Boardgames will need the actual board, pawns, cards and/or other objects gathered or created. Wargames will require rules for all the pertinent action and probably a couple of army / force lists (and you will obviously need some armies to battle with when it comes time to play the game!).

Play the game in November. It doesn’t matter whether you play your game in the garage with your mates, on line with a stranger, with your Nan over a cup of tea, or by yourself in the attic – just play it at least once!

Talk about your experience. Both during November or after, talk about what you did; share the game with others; blog about the process; tell everyone how awesome you did or how epic your failure was. What’s the point of creating your own game if you don’t tell everyone about it! Join the Facebook group and discuss!

I hope you participate in this activity. Let me know what you think of the concept and whether you are going to give it a go.

Winning

You “win” NaGa DeMon if you do the above 4 things. There are no judges, panels or secret ballots. Follow the four easy steps and win! Complete this epic 4-step quest and prove yourself a game design DeMon! What do you win? Besides the satisfaction of a job well-done, the respect of your peers and the admiration of those less awesome than yourself? Nothing. The point is to actually buckle down and make that game that you know you want to play and share. You do that and you win!